Sunday, November 28, 2010

Pentatonic Arpeggios

In my recent practice, I have found another lovely thing about pentatonics - arpeggios.

Let's review
Minor pentatonic
Root - b3rd - 4th - 5th - b7th

Major pentatonic
Root - 2nd - 3rd - 5th - 6th

Both of these pentatonics have an arpeggio built in, all you have to do is remove one note (actually, if you include extended chords, each of these pentatonics is an arpeggio - minor pentatonic is a minor 11th, and major pentatonic is a major 6/9).

If you remove the fourth scale degree, the minor pentatonic is a minor seventh arpeggio
Root - b3rd - 5th - b7th

If you remove the second scale degree, the major pentatonic is a major sixth arpeggio (aside - I prefer the major sixth or major 6/9 to the major 7th as I like the space between the 6th and the root better than the major 7th and the root, but that's just me).
Root - 3rd - 5th - 6th

What's also cool is that the major and minor arpeggios have the same fingering.

Minor 7th arpeggio (root on 6th string)

R


b7

b3

5

R

x

x

x

x

x

x


5

R




b3




b7

b3


Major 6th arpeggio (root on 6th string, fourth finger)

6


5

R

3

6

x

x

x

x

x

x


3

6




R




5

R


Basically, an A minor 7th arpeggio has the same finger as a C major 6th arpeggio.

Here is how I practice this.

First I play the pentatonic in each of the five positions. Then I play the corresponding arpeggio. I usually start at the fifth fret and repeat all the way to the 12th fret. In this way, I can hear the harmonic context of the arpeggio within the pentatonic.

My two cents